"Are we too quick to come to the defense of our children?"

I work at a children’s clothing store, and for the most part, there is usually no drama.

Well, apart from the occasional customer who isn’t happy with the fact the sole of her daughter’s shoe she bought five months ago has come off, and “what do you mean it’s not faulty and I can’t get my money back?”

‘Faulty’ shoes aside, last Saturday during my shift, something happened.

Something which made me think that maybe… maybe parents are too quick to defend their child.

It all happened when a six-year-old girl was sitting on the ottoman watching TV at the back of the store. Prior to that, a boy aged around eight was sitting there who had gotten up to see his mum who was shopping around the store.

The boy started to cry when he realised the ottoman was no longer his, and before I knew it, he had charged up to the girl and pushed her so hard that she flew head first into the TV screen.

The girl began to wail, and upon seeing what had happened, her older brother (aged around 10) ran up towards the boy and pushed him to the side and began to threaten him.

I seriously felt like I was watching a Geordie Shore episode, except the kids were drunk on McDonald’s orange juice.

This caused the girl’s bodyguard (her mother), to become involved.

She started screaming at the boy, asking him (more so yelling at him) why he had pushed his daughter?

Cue the boy’s mother entering the ring.

I was now watching two mothers arguing with each other at full volume, not only scaring the other children in the store, but me as well (I may or may not have hid behind the counter, leaving my manager to deal with the situation).

After a minute or so, the boy’s mother gave up arguing, took her son by the hand, and left the store without any form of apology to the mother and her child.

Eventually the crying girl had settled down, who was thankfully not injured.

After the whole commotion, I overheard two customers who had witnessed the incident having a conversion.

Customer 1: “How could that mother not apologise after what her son had done to that poor girl?”

Customer 2: “I think these days, mothers are too quick to defend their child, even if their child is in the wrong.”

Customer 1: “Definitely, I know if my child did something wrong, especially something like that, I would pull him aside straight away and tell him what he did wrong.”

Now, I’m not blaming the boy’s mother at all, because when there is a crying child, two others are in a fight (with one being your son) and an angry woman screaming at you, I can imagine that it would be difficult to comprehend what is happening.

But, are parents too quick to defend their children?

Should the boy’s mother have tried harder to reason with the girl’s mother and come to an understanding of what had happened, instead of leaving the store with no apology?

Alternatively, should the other mother have refrained from screaming at another person’s child in the first place?

Is it a maternal instinct that kicks in, like a lion protecting their cub?

Both mothers were quick to defend their child before they knew what had actually happened, which resulted in the situation escalating even further.

I’m sure this is a classic incident that most parents have had to deal with in some shape or form, but did either of the mothers deal with the situation correctly?

I’m not convinced they did.